Plantation Dispute In Capital Hearing Officer To Rule If State Can Hear Appeal Of Denial

July 24, 1986|By Mark Andrews of The Sentinel Staff

SANFORD — The governor and Florida Cabinet are expected to appoint a hearing officer next week to determine whether the state may hear an appeal of the Seminole County Commission's denial of the proposed 1,240-home Plantation project along the Wekiva River.

Executive branch staffers decided Wednesday to recommend that the governor and Cabinet take that action at their July 29 meeting, said county attorney Nikki Clayton, who attended the aides' meeting in Tallahassee.

If a hearing officer finds that the state does have jurisdiction to hear the appeal, then Amcor Investment Corp., an Arizona developer, could argue its case that the county commission should be forced to overturn its April 8 vote to deny a land-use change for the upscale housing project.

Arguments on the merits of Amcor's case against the county are not expected to come before late fall -- if the hearing officer finds that the state has jurisdiction in the matter. All recommendations of the hearing officer would go back to the governor and Cabinet for decisions.

This is the first time that a local government's denial of a land-use change has gone to the Cabinet, sitting as the Florida Land and Water Adjudicatory Commission, under new comprehensive land-use planning rules adopted by the Legislature last year. Rulings by the governor and Cabinet on this issue -- whichever way they go -- are expected to set statewide precedents.

The county commission had decided on a 4 to 1 vote that the 573-acre project would violate the county's land-use plan because it called for more than the minimum of 1-acre homesites in the area west of Markham Woods Road.

In May, the developer filed suit against the county asking the circuit court to overturn the commission's vote and to rule that the county was incorrect in finding that the development plan was in conflict with its land- use plan.

Two weeks ago, the county filed a motion to dismiss the suit on the grounds that Amcor had followed the wrong course in appealing the commission's denial of the land-use change.

The county's position is that neither the state nor the courts have jurisdiction to hear the developer's appeal at this point because state statutes provide for an appeal process that begins instead with the county commission. Amcor declined to go that route, county attorneys say.

Attorneys for the developer could not be reached for comment Wednesday.